X-Men Apocalypse is JUST Fine

By Shrey Sankalp

*Contains a few spoilers.

Before we get started, I’d like to confess: I love the X-Men.

I read a lot of the comics when I was younger, watched the animated series religiously and have been kinder to the film franchise and its endless continuity errors than most people.   I even ignored the inconsistencies between the comic books and the live action films—like, where did all the colorful costumes go?  In almost every other Marvel live action movie the characters kept the same suit style and color, but X-Men costumes completely change in all big screen installments.   Seriously, checkout how different they are in our superhero gallery (filter down to Wolverine and X-Men costumes.)  There’s a great mini documentary about this:

Anyway, moving on from my rant about costumes; I’ve always liked the themes the franchise projected and how deftly it blended those with slam-bang action and turned out a superhero movie that was rather watchable.

But see, that’s the thing.  While always watchable, the X-movies have been wildly inconsistent (in other areas beyond costumes and wardrobe) – the first two movies directed by Brian Singer are what helped kick off the genre, the third is a bit of a train wreck, Origins was a disaster, First Class is probably the best one, The Wolverine was meh, Days of Future Past was excellent, Deadpool was hilarious—you see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

So yes, while I was wholeheartedly excited for Apocalypse, I was also cautiously optimistic and turns out it was a good thing, because I walked out of the film feeling rather underwhelmed.

On paper, this seems like what could be a good, even great, film – directed by the man who gave rise to the genre, fielding an all-star cast with some promising fresh faces in the mix, trailers that grabbed your attention instantly, and having an omnipotent villain with all the potential in the world—and brief or not, Wolverine’s cameo is the last of its kind as this is the last time Hugh Jackman suits up in a Wolverine costume for a full-cast X-Men film before walking away from the role after Wolverine 3.

It’s just unfortunate the film doesn’t capitalize on any of that.

I’d like to clear one thing up, though, and that’s the fact that I disagree with the Rotten Tomatoes score for this film.  It’s certainly got issues, but it’s nowhere near as bad as RT suggests and most certainly better than The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine; but if you were to take a look at the issues everyone has with the film, they’re rather similar and completely justified.  And I’ll get to that in a minute.

But first let me talk about the single best thing in the film – Quicksilver.  Evan Peters' mutant is as funny and charming as he was the last time we saw him.   He’s been given a similar slow-mo sequence that’s even better than the last time, and definitely the best moment in the film.  There is energy in every scene he’s in that injects the film with a welcomed dose of adrenaline.  Similarly, there are moments with Professor Xavier early on in the film that have certain levity to them which makes them some of the best scenes in the film.  His outfit is not all that bad either, leather seems to add to his cool outlaw look—though it still deviates significantly from the comic book costume.

Image Source: Youtube

And the new cast does fairly well too; Sophie Turner is great as Jean Grey, while Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp and Kodi Smit-McPhee do well in the parts that have been written for them, while Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne and Michael Fassbender continue to show why they’re such highly revered actors.

Problems with the Film

The first of my issues arises with how I didn’t seem to be much invested in any of the characters in the film.  The new cast doesn’t really have a lot of personality, and even the traces present in the old ones are interchangeable.  Mystique’s motivations throughout the film remained unclear to me, and her being in her human form despite all the mutant and proud talk seemed odd (the studio probably wanted J-Law’s face everywhere), you’re probably going to see a lot of Jennifer Lawrence masks passing as Mystique costumes this year.  Charles Xavier similarly doesn’t stand out here, but that’s expected seeing how First Class and Days of Future Past both provided him with a characterization we haven’t normally associated him with.

The only character you care about is once again: Magneto.  Part of it might be due to Fassbender's performance, but the early scenes where he’s introduced are fantastic, and while the writing for his character does slacken up towards the end, Fassbender sells everything.

Image Source: screentrant.com

Unfortunately, that's more than what I can say for the big bad Apocalypse himself, who was laughably inept.  He may have been played by fan favorite Oscar Isaac, but underneath the layers of makeup, a bulky costume and voice alteration, it might as well have been your neighbor's dog playing him.  Thanks to the effects, any nuance he might have brought to the performance is lost and the whole thing feels over the top.

Image Source: marvel.wikia.com

But that’s forgivable; the worst part is how Apocalypse doesn’t do anything.  His powers are vague, his motivations more generic than vanilla ice-cream and all he does is stand around while his Horsemen do the heavy lifting.  He’s supposed to be a God and he doesn’t even exercise the powers he has fully! If you think Ultron was lame, just wait till you see Apocalypse – at least Ultron had a personality and did something.

This is a complaint that extends to the Horsemen of Apocalypse as well.  Apart from Magneto, none of them are anything more than cardboard cut-outs.  The bit with Storm at the end feels unearned, while Archangel is useless aside from looking cool.  Olivia Munn is impressive as Psylocke, but once again, apart from being eye-candy, she doesn’t really make herself an important cog of the machinery.

The film’s run-time is a rather hefty 150 minutes, and it didn’t need to be.  There’s a whole sequence with Stryker in the middle that takes about 15-20 minutes and is rather abrupt; it only serves to chime in a Wolverine cameo that’s barely 30 seconds long and absolutely not necessary to give the cast their costumes.  That very scene could have been eliminated and the entire scenario reworked to make the film feel tighter.

Image Source: Fandango

The Core of the Problem

When you really think about what I’ve been saying, the common denominator is how the film is thinly written.  And it is!  There’s no denying that.  The character development is either missing or inadequate and the strategy to overcome it with action fails simply because the film is poorly paced – the first half has zero action and gets boring at times, while the second half is a cacophony of irrelevant CGI destruction that you ultimately don’t care about because there are no real stakes – and you already know how it’s going to end, no surprises.  That’s how predictable and vanilla the film's plot is.

There’s so much happening on-screen that there’s nothing happening, and it’s all because you’re not emotionally invested in any of it.  This is one thing that Civil War did tremendously well, despite having a slow first act that built up the conflict.

Look, I didn’t outright hate the film.  It takes a lot of effort to put together a film of this ambition and scope and especially when you’re making a standalone film in today’s climate that doesn’t have to serve the needs of a larger universe.  But none of that counts for anything if the final product ends up being this generic.

It Is What It Is: Hollow

X-Men: Apocalypse is not outright bad as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was, nor is it as fun as Deadpool, or as emotionally resonant as Civil War.  It just is.

It’s hollow spectacle, and maybe that’s just not for everyone.  And this isn’t just the emotional fan in me talking; it’s the pragmatic cinephile too.

If this film came out 5-6 years ago or had Transformers in the title, it wouldn’t have been a surprise; but we’ve seen better in recent years and even the X-Men movies have shown tremendous innovation to stay relevant.  That just wasn’t present here anymore, making you wonder if it’s the end for the franchise that started it all.

It’s just fine, but maybe that’s not good enough anymore.

At least we know that X-Men: Apocalypse costumes will still be a Halloween favorite this year, but that’s only because a movie came out this year, not because this is a masterpiece.